Mortiis’s Strange and Not So Strange Music that Shaped my Life

Following release of new album ‘The Great Deceiver’, Mortiis is to tour the UK. We asked Mortiis himself, Havard Ellefsen, to create a playlist of music that shaped his life. There are plenty of interesting choices here, here are some words from Havard himself:

“A lot of music shaped me and my life in some way, and most of it we all listened to growing up, at least if we’re roughly the same age. I figured instead of listing the obvious Heavy Metal Heroes, or the obvious industrial crossover type bands that clearly helped me rediscover my motivation to keep making my own music in the late ’90s, I’d make a list of stuff that didn’t necessarily directly influence my own music (with a few obvious exceptions), but still played a pivotal role in my youth, making me want to one day start a band and make music as well.”

“I decided to focus on stuff that held a lot of meaning to me during my lifetime, skipping the absolutely bleeding obvious (Kiss, Maiden, Wasp, Priest, etc) as it would just make the list an exercise in music everyone has heard 6000 times before. Some of the stuff everyone already heard, but at least I think it might be interesting. ”

Highlighted tracks:

Venom ‘In Nomine Satanas’

“I bought this and a few other Venom singles in Gothenburg around 1986. The B-side “In Nomine Satanas” has remained my definitive favourite Venom song of all time.”

Slayer ‘Evil has no Boundaries’

“I always thought ‘Show No Mercy’ was the best Slayer album. Probably nostalgia, and the fact that I always was drawn towards ’80s bands with heavy images.”

Tangerine Dream ‘Bent Cold Sidewalk’

“If you know your TD, you know this is a totally bizarre album by their standards, and one of my favourites. It also made me realize that it´s OK to do unexpected off the wall shit if you want to. “